President Lee Myung-bak's proposal of a comprehensive package of incentives for North Korea on the condition that it abandons its nuclear ambitions in his nationally-televised Liberation Day address is not likely to be accepted by North Korea, Yonhap News Agency said Saturday.
In a speech marking the 64th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, the South Korean president said his government was willing to establish high-level dialogue with the communist state if it agrees to first give up all its nuclear ambitions.
Lee also recapped that the South would help Pyongyang end its political isolation and economically prosper if the North renounced its atomic weapons.
The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) welcomed Lee's proposal, also calling on North Korea to end its isolation.
The main opposition Democratic Party, however, dismissed the proposal as diplomatic rhetoric, noting the president's offer failed to address the most important issue ― North Korean demands to honor inter-Korean agreements signed by South Korea's former liberal governments.
"We welcome the proposal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and reduce conventional weapons, but his failure to express his willingness to implement the declarations of June 15 and Oct. 4 again showed his limits," party spokesman Rep. Noh Young-min said, referring to joint statements issued following inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007.
Analysts, however, remain pessimistic about whether the North would respond positively to Lee's proposal, pointing out that his proposal for dialogue is still based on the condition that North Korea first give up its nuclear ambitions.
"The problem is North Korea basically says it will not give up its nuclear weapons until the North-U.S. relationship is normalized and all U.S. military threats are first removed," Cheong Seong-chang, director of inter-Korean studies at Seoul's Sejong Institute, said.
Earlier, Lee proposed the so-called "Denuclearization, Openness, 3000" initiative, under which Lee had repeatedly promised to help develop North Korea into a country whose per capita income exceeds $3,000 if the communist state completely abandons all its nuclear programs.
Pyongyang has rejected Lee's Openness 3000 initiative as an insult and has described it as a "criminal" campaign against its communist regime.